Building Blocks

In my quest for Christmas presents, I decided to make my children their own building blocks. For this post, I am showing only the square blocks, but I have made rectangles, triangles, circles, bridges and dowels as well. If you are planning on making this for Christmas, please be aware that the hard-coat mod podge takes 4 weeks to fully cure. Give yourself plenty of time!

Be as creative as you'd like and have fun!

Items Needed:

2x2x8 piece of wood

(use larger sizes of wood according to the shape/object you are making)

Colorful paer

Hard Coat Mod Podge

Paper trimmer

Foam brush

#400 Grit sand paper

#0000 Steel Wool

A LOT OF TIME!

Measure the sides of your blocks. Cut paper squares that are approx. 1/8 inch smaller than the surface of the block. You will need 6 squares per block.Using the mod podge, coat the back side of the paper squares. Apply to the blocks. Press out any air bubbles and hold tightly until secure. Repeat this process until all sides of the block has been covered. Let sit for 2 hours.

After letting blocks dry for 2 hours, coat the top of the block with mod podge. *Important! Only coat the TOP SIDE of the block with mod podge. Repeat this process until all of the blocks have the top coated in mod podge. Let blocks sit for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, coat the tops of the blocks again. Do this process until all blocks have 5-6 coats of mod podge on them.

After 5-6 coats of mod podge has been placed on the tops of the blocks, let dry overnight. The next day, rotate the blocks and start the process over again; until all sides of the blocks have been coated.

Once the entire block has 5-6 coats of dry mod podge on it, use your #400 grit sand paper and wet sand any ridges or bumps from your block. Let dry. Buff to a shine with the #0000 steel wool. Let cure for 4 weeks before using.

*I am making a matching box for the blocks to go in. Watch for a future post to show how it's done!

TIPS: For my boys, I am using letter and number stickers on their blocks. Simply place the stickers on top of the paper and coat with mod podge. You can use any stickers you'd like! Have fun!